Ruby unwrapped Leonie and let her down, so that she ran with arms open wide toward the ocean, stopping just short of the lapping waves. She bent and tried to touch the edge of a wave, laughed when it disappeared, started to chase another as it withdrew and was only saved from a soaking by Ruby, who scooped her up and ran back to the dry sand. More games of “touch the waves” followed. The child was looking down, so she didn’t see the seal’s head pop up, much closer now, before disappearing again.

Soon the two of them were sitting on a rock, Ruby drying the child’s hands on one of the scarves, doing the counting rhyme, one-little-piggy, both of them laughing when the little one went wee-wee-wee all the way home. As she tickled her under the chin, Ruby suddenly realized that when the Roane arrived, when she handed her back, Ruby wouldn’t be doing any of this anymore. Constance would take her daughter with her to wherever she lived now, and Ruby might never see them again. Of course it was the right thing for Leonie to be with her mother, and her other relatives. Ruby was never intending to keep her; that wasn’t the plan. Only, now she wished it was. She squinted into the sunlight, scanning the beach for signs of Constance. Maybe she won’t come, she thought.

Leonie, now with her gloves on, trotted down toward the water to look for shells. Ruby followed. The wind dropped to a light breeze; the sea was flat and calm. A chill crept up her spine and she whirled around, sure that she was being watched.

“Constance?”

But there was no one there, only the empty sand dunes, the seagulls, and out there in the ocean, the seals. Would she be in a boat or a vehicle? If the colony lived on an island, then it would be a boat, but she didn’t see any craft in the bay. Perhaps there was a causeway just out of sight somewhere. She shaded her eyes and searched the horizon. Two of the three seals she’d seen were still on the rock. The other one was nowhere.

“Mummy!” cried Leonie, and started running along the sand. There was Constance, at the edge of the sea, barefoot, glowing, and smiling, and running toward her daughter with her arms out, ready to catch her. The sight of it filled Ruby up with joy, and yet pierced her heart at the same time. Mother and daughter, reunited. Just the way it should be.